


Blurring the Senses

by punkstealer



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: I’m not sure, M/M, Not Medically Accurate, Synesthesia, Tony Has Synesthesia, the Winter Solider as a person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 07:04:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15137762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punkstealer/pseuds/punkstealer
Summary: Bucky’s voice is a cyan blue, a striking color that will remain in Tony’s mind all night, and the Winter Soilder’s is a metallic grey, reminding him of the metal he molds in his workshop. When he says “James” it taste like red wine with dark chocolate and cinnamon. A complex taste for a complex man.





	Blurring the Senses

Tony has the right to blame Fury for this. There’s no other way to look at it, this is 100% Fury’s fault and he doesn’t care what anyone else says.

It’s a known fact that Tony, _occasionally_ , hacks into the S.H.I.E.L.D. servers whenever they piss him off. So Fury deliberately dangled those files in front of Tony and he took the goddamn bait, but he didn’t react. Right away. Instead he spent countless nights locked away in his workshop, withdrawing from the team and reaching out to a _Sorcerer_ of all people, before finally feeling ~~confident~~ ready to hear it from Cap himself. Tony tosses down the papers he printed out just for Cap and waits.

“What’s this?” Steve raises a brow at Tony, but obediently opens the folder. “Tony this isn’t – I can explain.”

The files of the Winter Solider are scattered on the table, Steve not even needing to read them to recognize them. Tony stands across from him, arms folded tightly across his chest as he watches Steve open and close him mouth like a fish.

“So you knew?”

“Tony…”

“Did you know?”

Steve lowers his gaze from Tony’s fierce brown eyes and instead looks at the papers before him. “Yes I did, but it’s not him. Tony, they brainwashed him.”

The two are left in a heavy silence. Steve wallowing in his guilt and Tony analyzing all his options. There’s a reason he didn’t confront Steve right away, he had to work through his own emotions first. One thing ~~that’s always being shoved down his throat~~ that he’s learned is that he can’t always let his emotions rule his decisions.

“Okay,” Steve’s eyes jerk up to stare as Tony finally takes the seat across the table. “What can I do to help?”

-

It took 4 months of Steve and Natasha disappearing for days on end before finally coming back to the tower, with one mountain looking man following, for good. At first glance Tony doesn’t see it. Barnes looks worn down, hair a long nest of knots and a messy beard, this is HYDRA’s number one man? He looks like if the wind blew too hard then he’d be on the ground.

Steve, who also looks a little worse for wear, makes the first move. He steps forward and drops a heavy hand onto Tony’s shoulder.

“Tony, this is Bucky. Buck meet Tony. He’s the one who offered to let you stay here.”

Barnes straightens up and squares his shoulders, suddenly looking like the assassin Tony’s been warned of, but refuses to make eye contact. It takes a moment of clenching and unclenching his jaw before he finally gives off a small, “thank you”.

And Tony is…

He’s just floored. A cyan blue, a bright but soothing color that stands out in his mind, a colored ribbon of sound sends warmth down his spine and wraps around his core. It’s something that he wants to keep and be able to use as a blanket.  
  
All he can do is nod.

-

The thing is, most of the time, everyone’s base color stays the same and there are a variety of shades that they can speak. Tony knows everyone’s base color and all the possible shades they can be, so when he sees a bubble of metallic grey everything inside of him freezes up. JARVIS would have told him of any guests.

He rushes into the kitchen and stops short. Steve and Sam sat across each other, chatting quietly with one another and Barnes sat beside Steve. All three had food in front of them, but Tony’s eyes zeroed in on Barnes.

“Hey Tony.” Steve smiles up at him. Mouth open like he was going to say something else, but Tony already worked through the situation before him.

“You’re not Bucky.”

“What?” Sam furrows his brows as Steve makes an outraged noise in the background. “What makes you say that?”

The lime green twinge coloring their tones is easy to ignore, he’s used to seeing the discomfort creep into peoples voice when they talk to him. Instead he keeps his eyes locked with Barnes.

“Who are you?”

Barnes’ icy eyes didn’t flinch away, like he usually does when people try to keep eye contact with him. “The Solider.”

The metallic grey ribbon shouldn’t have shocked Tony, but it did. Unlike Barnes’ voice that makes Tony tingle, the Solider’s makes his whole body shudder. Steve jumps up, body already in a fighting stance, but neither Solider or Tony spared him a second glance.

“Is Barnes alright?”

“Affirmative.”

He nods and turns to leave the room. Tony doesn’t want to be around for the after math of what he had just exposed. Besides, Bruce will probably catch him up on this.

-

“So,” Tony begins as he replaces some pieces in Bucky’s arm. “Who am I talking to?”

He shifted ever so slightly in the seat and then lowered his head, “How did you know?”

The blue was lighter than usual, but Tony figured it matched with the lighter voice Bucky used to talk. Tony likes to think that the two of them have gotten closer since he first began working on Bucky’s arm. The first few sessions only lasting a few minutes each before JARVIS would suggest Tony stop due to Bucky’s heart rate. Besides that, the workshop is Tony’s safe space that he had extended to Bucky. It had become a rule that whatever was said in the workshop **stays** in the workshop, Tony even went as far as learning Russian when he noticed that Bucky couldn’t always control himself from switching between it and English.

So naturally that’s why Tony says what he does. It’s just the effect hat the safe space has on him. ~~Not the fact that he likes Bucky or anything.~~

“We’ll take turns, okay? I’ll answer you and you answer me.”

Tony doesn’t mind the silence that follows. He knows that opening up is hard, especially for someone who’s been brainwashed and manipulated for 70+ years.

“How did you know?”

He snaps the metal plate back into its spot on Bucky’s arm before leaning back in his seat so that he can observe the other man. Tony finally shrugs. “You’re voice.”

The look of pure indignation on his face makes Tony bark out a quick laugh. He should probably feel bad at trying to evade the question, but it’s something he’s only really discussed with Rhodey.

“Who is he?”

“The Winter Solider. Wilson said that it’s a coping thing.”

“But?” Tony prompts.

His tongue darts out and licks at his bottom lip before he continues, clearly uncomfortable with this discussion. “Don’ know. He’s me and we’re James.”

The burst of blue and grey that come out side by side throws Tony off. He’s never seen something like this, but the rush of emotions that sweep through him isn’t unpleasant. ~~Bucky~~ _James_ waits for the outburst, probably thinking Tony is going to be outraged at the threat that he represents, but Tony just nods his head.

“I have this thing with my head. Whenever I hear something I can see colors to go with the noise. So when people talk I see a specific shade and his color is different than yours.” Tony’s fingers beat a rhythm against his sternum and he can feel _James_ ’ stare burning into the side of his face, but he pushes on. “Some words that mean a lot to me can even have a certain taste when I say them. So, uh, for coffee I can actually taste it right now.”

 _James_ can’t help but snort. “Of course coffee would mean a lot to you.”

-

It takes months of sneaking around and only a few emotional breakdowns before they bring any of it up again. Tony and James lay in a tangled heap in bed.

“What do I taste like?”

Tony has a reply ready in an instant, after all he’d just had James’ dick in his mouth a few minutes ago, but he can feel how tense asking the question made James.

“You guys are very complex.”

James, curse his strength, easily flips them over and presses down onto Tony; he leans forward and nips at Tony’s lip before he growls out, “Say it and tell us.”

“ _James_ ,” it it comes out more like a moan, well no one will know. “It’s like red wine, not that cheap shit either, with dark chocolate and cinnamon. Sweet and spicy. It’s really similar to h… _home_.”

The swell of feelings inside of Tony feels like it’s all too much, he feels raw and vulnerable. James presses a sweet kiss to his lips and it’s like a balm that soothes his exposed nerves.

“I love you too.” Is whispered against his lips.

His cyan blue, a striking color that’s imprinted in Tony’s mind, chases after the metallic grey, similar to the metal that Tony molds in his workshop, and the colors dance around each other.

A visual reminder of how Bucky and the Winter Solider are two halves that make up…

“ _James_.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first WinterIron story. It’s not amazing, but it’s an idea I posted on tumblr and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. I’ll pronanly rewrite this in the future and make it way longer once I’m more comfortable writing the pair. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Follow my [Tumblr](http://buckyusuallytopstony.tumblr.com)  
> I’ve been posting small snippets for possible future stories.


End file.
